Event: John Clayton and Alice Rutherford were married offstage.
Source: This is not an actual date presented in Tarzan Of The Apes nor is it revealed by Edgar Rice Burroughs. April 31 is derived from the statement, that Clayton and Alice were married scarcely three months before receiving his first mission. The year 1871 is based on the fact that the Greystoke's set sail in May 1872.
Tarzan Of The Apes |
Event: John Clayton receives his first mission from the Colonial Office.
Source: This is not an actual date presented by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan Of The Apes. It is, however, derived from the statement that Clayton and Alice were married scarcely three months before receiving his first mission. It is important to note that when Clayton receives this mission Burroughs in no way implies that Lady Alice is with child, or that the newlyweds leave England immediately after receiving Clayton's mission.
In fact, Burroughs hints at the opposite. If Clayton was married to Alice for three months when they left Dover for Africa, they would have been married for four months when they reached Freetown. From Freetown, twelve days pass before the Fuwalda sights land and the Greystoke's are put ashore. On the thirteenth day, Clayton starts work on a one-room cabin that takes approximately two months to build and furnish. Now we have a passage of six months and thirteen days.
Tarzan Of The Apes |
Event: Lady Alice becomes pregnant offstage.
Source: This is my own provided date derived from counting backward nine months from the day Tarzan was born. One must keep in mind that although Burroughs does not mention that Lady Alice is with a child when Clayton receives his first Colonial Office assignment, the narrator does imply that she is before they set sail in May. "In his leisure Clayton read, often aloud to his wife, from the store of books he had brought for their new home. Among those were many for little children - picture books, primers, readers - for they had known that their little child would be old enough for such before they might hope to return to England." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
Tarzan Of The Apes |
About The Author
James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines, over a span of forty-five years. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled, Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more excepted date May 1888.
James Michael Moody is also the author of the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, and Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022. Swordsman On Unium is going through the publishing process.